The present invention relates to a method and system for measuring subject's reaction to stimuli. More specifically the present invention relates to a method and system engaged in measurements of human reaction and analysis thereof.
In many fields such as psychology, sociology, political science, social work, marketing, management, decision making, education, medicine etc. There is a need to identify and/or measure reactions of subjects toward objects, events, situations, issues, states, people, etc.
The term “reaction to stimuli” as used herein is intended to connote the subject's indication of attitude, opinion, judgement, preference, evaluation, satisfaction, involvement, feeling, intention, etc. when presented with a question/statement/situation or a problem, with or without additional stimuli, the subjective response to which is sought to be measured.
Four basic types of measurement scales are used in measuring human reactions. One of the scales is the Nominal Scale which enables the assignment of elements to different categories, numerical values that may be assigned to them are of no meaning except for category identification.
A second scale is the Ordinal Scale in which it is possible to assign elements to categories or classes, where the categories or classes establish a monotonic increasing or decreasing function.
A third scale is the Interval Scale in which the elements are assigned values along a defined continuum, e.g., like—dislike. Numbers represent points on the continuum, where differences in evaluation of attributes, factors or variables are represented by the differences between the numbers (in any pre-selected units of measurements). This scale does not possess an absolute zero point, thus no ratios are allowed, e.g. in measurement of temperature using Fahrenheit or Centigrade degrees, one can relate to temperature differences, and but to temperature ratios.
The fourth type of scale is the Ratio Scale in which the elements are assigned values on a continuum where an absolute zero does exist. Thus all arithmetic operations are permissible with these values including ratios, e.g. income, height, etc.
Based on the above four scales many measurement techniques were developed where they represent modified forms of these basic scales.
Of great importance within measuring subject's reaction to stimuli is the measurement of intervening variables, i.e., the variables which link the reality in which the individual exists with his subjective responses or behavior. Such intervening variables include motivations, perceptions, cognition, attitudes, involvement, opinions, judgements, preferences, evaluations, feelings, intentions, satisfactions etc.
Since these variables are on the whole subjective and situational, an absolute zero point does not apply in most of them. Thus, the ratio scale, for all practical purposes, is of lesser value in said measurements. For variables for which there is no theoretical constraints for the use of values on a continuum, but which do not have an absolute zero point, the most sophisticated scale analytically, and the one for which most of the current statistical tools have been developed, is the interval scale. However, a large percentage of the general population finds it difficult and sometimes impossible to place themselves on an interval scale, since it is extremely difficult for people to express an opinion on a continuum as presented to them by prior art techniques wherein the subject must designate a point between two poles as representing his position relative to the values represented by said poles. Rather, the ordinal scale seems to most people as a scale to which it is easier for them to relate, yet it provides only a limited number of choices, usually between 5-7, and the statistical analysis of such data is quite limited.
According to prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,391 (hereinafter the “Lampert patent”) there has been a proposed device, which combines the desired statistical properties of the interval (and ratio) scales with the ease of measurement of the ordinal scale. Lampert patent device enables measuring a subject's reaction to stimuli comprising of a first means having a defined viewing area and a colored means with at least one colored area adapted to be viewed in said viewing area, wherein the extent of colored area viewable is variable and adapted to indicate the degree of a subject's reaction to specific stimuli; and wherein there is a means for translating the extent of said colored area viewed in said viewing area into a scaled value which corresponds to said extent of colored area, and where said scaled value is being operatively arranged so as not to be visible to the subject when viewing said viewing area. The measuring device can be used for different purposes of evaluating human reaction(s) toward stimuli, such as: conducting polls, evaluating decisions of one or many participants, measuring consumer attitude toward products or services, measuring student reactions to a learning experience, etc.
The use of Lampert device for measuring human reactions suffers from several deficiencies. First, each subject (person) must be provided with a Lampert device. Second, the reaction measurement demands a personal contact with the subject, and in most cases a human operator for recording the numerical value. This process can cause human errors, measurement bias, and in a period where personal interviews are becoming less popular, it may result in a limited number of measurements. Finally, in the Lampert device the measurements of the subject reaction to stimuli are restricted to his final reaction, ignoring the subject's intermediary (in-between) reactions through the process of making up his mind, which can be of great value to the researcher and/or to the research sponsor. Examination of the process can indicate degree of hesitation, determination, intensity of feelings, etc.
The prime object of the invention, therefore, is to provide a reaction measurement method and system enabling to measure subject in-between, temporary reactions before reaching his final reaction.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a computerized reaction measurement method and system enabling an efficient way of gathering and analyzing the reactions of a large number of subjects having computerized devices.
It is another object of the invention to provide a computerized reaction measurement method and system enabling immediate evaluation and/or analysis of subject's reaction and conveying further stimuli to the subject based upon this evaluation and/or analysis.